Bald Rock Creek, Girraween National Park, QueenslandThe Yellow-tufted Honeyeater. A very common bird in the ParkThe Yellow-striped Hunter Dragonflies are out and about at the moment, however their numbers along with other Dragonfly species, are very low.

There were quite a few lizards around today, including this Jacky Lizard

Well we are all set up at the Caravan Park in Stanthorpe now and will be starting the Apple thinning again next week. It’s ridiculously hot for this time of year, 30 degrees today, hard to believe. I guess we are in for a scorcher this summer.

Today we visited Girraween National Park , always one of our favourite parks, with a gorgeous rocky river, lots of rock pools, a huge rocky pyramid to climb and plenty of walking trails, you certainly can’t get bored in this beautiful place in nature. We saw lots of lizards, heard plenty of birds but for some reason we never get many bird photos here. A few dragonflies are also starting to appear which makes Anthony very very happy. He can spend hours stalking one just to get that perfect photo of a perfect pose on the perfect prop and of course with a perfect background.🤩🤩

We saw 3 Red-bellied black snakes but boy are the quick, we didn’t get any photos but I got a little snippet of one on my video, he was swimming and ducked under a rocky ledge, I wonder how long they can hold their breath because we sat there for ages waiting for him to resurface. Maybe he found a little tunnel through the rocks and made his escape. They are a beautiful snake to watch, very timid, if they see you they are pretty quick to get away.

Granite : a strong feature in this Park

It was difficult Photographing the birdlife today, they were very uncooperative

This is a Common male Archtail Dragonfly

Fairly slim pickings in the Odonata (dragon/damselflies) department

A nice variety of reptiles were spotted today

Some snippets from Girraween

So this is most likely our last big outing for a while. I guess we do have time off around Xmas but it would be pretty hot at that time and once we get into work mode we don’t seem to do much else. At the Apple orchard where we work, there is a huge lake with all sorts of birdlife visiting, Anthony sometimes goes there on our days off so we will still post some photos and of course our weekly inspirational quotes. Plus there is a very cute river in town where we also see lots of birds and dragonflies so we will still be doing occasional blogs of the amazing critters that we see when out and about. Please enjoy the pics and video.

The last couple of days have been great, good weather which also enabled us to get some much needed maintenance work done to the van. It’s hard to believe we are only now tackling some jobs that were on our must do list 5 months ago when we first left Stanthorpe🙄🙄 We still have a week before starting work again so will try a little harder to get things done.

Yesterday we re visited Queen Mary Falls, it’s such a wow place, I don’t think I could ever get sick of walking around the falls circuit, there’s really something magical about this place.

King of the pond, at the base of Queen Mary Falls

More birds from our second visit to the Falls

Our second visit to the Falls

Bell Birds aka Bell Miners seem to dominate the Goomburra section of The Main Range

Other birds of Goomburra

click or press on image for larger view

Today we managed to get up extra early and take a drive out to the Main Range National Park . This park is enormous and so many great parts to it but we went to the Goomburra Section about 45 minutes drive from Warwick. We had been there once before but it was in winter and today it was just beautiful after the rain they have had , it’s so nice and green and all the creeks are running. The drive there is nice too, lots of cattle and horse studs, beautiful country quite some kms before even getting to the park. It seems it’s calving and foal time, we saw so many gorgeous little baby animals, always a treat for me. I filmed one of the mares with her new foal,just beautiful to watch, it’s at the end of my video. The birdlife in the park was fantastic, soon as we got out the truck we could hear so many different birds and the Bell Miner birds were so loud. There’s a few walks here, we didn’t take any lunch so only did a small walk around Dalrymple Creek which was really nice. Next time we will definetly pack a picnic and make a day of it but we really had to do some shopping today as well so had to come back early.

A newly emerged (Teneral) Arrowhead Rockmaster Damselfy

Crazy Metalart on way too Goomburra

Goomburra

Tomorrow we have the big trip back to Stanthorpe. It’s only about 40 minutes drive. Work is looming, we are trying to delay it as long as possible, holidays are really hard to give up. There’s a couple of really nice National Parks south a bit so we are hoping we have time to visit those. Enjoy all the amazing pics and 2 videos this time.

Well thanks anyway but I guess all that finger crossing didn’t help us. We ended up at the Canungra Showgrounds for 4 days pretty much just sitting in the rain. In fact it seemed like most of the heavy rain was making a beeline straight for us so any outings to the Lamington Ranges was definetly out and we just sat there watching the grounds slowly turn into a lake. Riveting.😳😳 We did grab our brollies a couple of times and walk into the town, this is a beautiful picturesque place normally and thankfully the rain turned a bit more patchy on our last day so we could at least pack up the awning while it was dry. We also walked around the Showgrounds which backs onto a very nice creek that was fairly flowing with all that rain. We saw a couple of ducklings caught up in the raging torrent, we couldn’t do anything to save them, they sped by so fast, the parents were flying over quacking like crazy, we just hope they all met up again a few miles down the river where the current hopefully eased off a bit. Horrible, we never think of the animals getting caught up in this torrential rain and the rivers rising so rapidly.

Noisy Friarbird, Durikai State Forest, Warwick Region

Some other birds sited at Durikai State Forest

We have been in Warwick a couple of days now and the days have been good, very cloudy and ripper storms coming through in the afternoon, but the worst ones have just skimmed past us like we have a magic shield on so we hope that continues. There’s a lot of hail, big winds and torrential rain around.

We found a nice little Billabong at Durikai State Forest just west of here towards Karara. The birds were chirping like crazy, it really lifted our spirits, so many honeyeaters there but they were very wary of us. We were very quiet and sneaky but they were on to us and soon as we got near them they flew off to another part of the Billabong. One of those collapsible bird hides would have been great here.

This was a tough selfie. Had to tie the camera to a tree branch and scramble back down in the allotted 10 second timer 😳

Queen Mary Falls, Killarney Queensland

The stunning Female Satin Bowerbird

Click or press on bird for larger view

Leslie Dam, The Billabong & Queen Mary Falls

‘A Dragon in the mist’ A young Eastern Water Dragon at the base of the Falls

More Eastern Water Dragons

Today we drove to Queen Mary Falls, about 40 minutes drive east. We have been there many times and it’s a fantastic place. The afternoons always seem better there as the sun is on the waterfall and today was a lot of birds out and about and so many of the Water Dragons. I just love them, each one is different depending on how they are camouflaged so Anthony got some great photos and I got some great video of two squabbling over something…maybe the best rock to view the falls from😁😁

It’s one of our favourite places to visit. Please enjoy the pics and video,

Very Exciting, as this is our first (Image) capture of this normally elusive Noisy Pitta at Mount Warninglyrebird trail, Mt. Warning

Lyrebird Trail, Mt Warning

Click or press on image for larger view

Well this is our third night at the Murwillumbah Showgrounds and the sites here are very much in the open. Our first day was really hot, around 30 degrees and the sun was following the back of the van around so poor Chloe couldn’t sleep in her tunnel out to the cat enclosure. She was quite distressed about it and kept yowling at us to do something, we already had the aircon going and the fan but she has really taken to sleeping in the tunnel till night time. We had storms that night and we couldn’t believe she was still out there with thunder and lightning. She is one strange cat😼😼

The weather turned bad and now it’s like winter again. Long pants and jumpers on today. We have been driving to Uki where there is a fabulous cafe and a really cute little town. Then on to the Wollumbin National Park (Mt Warning)where you can climb Mount Warning, which we have done in the past and it’s fantastic but certainly wouldn’t try with storms around and the mountain top has been covered in clouds the last two days.

We have just been slowly walking around the base of the mountain where there is some beautiful rainforest with enormous trees. We were super lucky to spot a pair of Noisy Pittas and after watching them for a while we noticed where they were building a nest under some roots of a very big tree. We didn’t want to disturb them too much but over the last few days I did get some video, though it’s so dark in that forest with the black clouds hanging around and Anthony got some amazing photos. The Russet tailed Thrush was a new bird for us and we did see a few other birds around there which was amazing considering the weather. We had to run to the truck a few times when some heavy showers came through. It’s certainly a beautiful spot there. The Whip birds were going crazy, you can hear them through out my video but we looked and looked but couldn’t see them at all even though they were so close.

Wollumbin NP (Mt Warning)

Noisy Pitta collecting nesting material

Only a couple of sightings with very bad light

Great coffee and EB’s at Uki Cafe

Mount Warning

We are hoping that tomorrow morning it’s not raining so we can pack up and move on. We can pack up in the rain but it’s the biggest pain, also climbing on the roof to stow the cat enclosure is a bit risky when it’s so wet. Every where we look on the weather radar it appears to be raining or will be raining in the next few days so that’s a bit depressing for us sun seekers. Also we can’t believe we are back to having the heater on, crazy weather 🤨🤨🤨Enjoy the pics and video, Anthony is super proud of his Pitta photos, he did a bit of slippery rock climbing down the stream to keep track of them. Please keep your fingers crossed for the weather tomorrow. Cheers,

Wow what can I say?? The photos and videos speak for themselves. This is a definite must do place to visit again. After missing out on the Sea Eagle photos we decided to cheat a little…… Anthony went to the Bait shop and found a whopping big mullet that cost $6, I couldn’t believe one bait fish would cost that much. We defrosted it and went back to the rocky ledge at Iluka Bluff and placed it where we could get good video and photos. The Brahminy Kite was on to it within minutes and had a great feed, of course birds of prey always eat the eyes first, must be some delicacy for them. He tried to lift it a couple of times but it was too heavy. He flew off with plenty left over and we were hoping the Sea Eagles would come and pay a visit. We thought maybe they wouldn’t come this time, we were scanning the perimeters for about half an hour.

Anthony’s battery was going flat and as he was changing it one of the Eagles appeared flying so low across the beach I almost missed him. He zeroed in on the fish and bang …..he grabbed it and was off. He must have spotted that fish from miles away, Amazing hey??

Of course Anthony couldn’t get his camera around in time and focus so sadly missed out but I managed to get it on video.🤩🤩

Today was our last chance to try again so another defrosted $6 fish and back down to the rocky ledge. This time the Brahminy was there with his mate so after one finished having a snack the other one came down. After a while the Sea Eagle appeared and tried to swoop the fish but the Brahminies wouldn’t let him , it was great to watch the mid air tussle going on. We were surprised that the Eagle gave up and took off but came back about an hour later and took us by surprise again, it’s unbelievable how fast a big bird like that is. I only just got it on video and Anthony missed out yet again.😪😪

But Wow what a fantastic show.

Iluka Buff – featuring Sea-Eagle action

Lunch time

All attempts failed to get AirborneWhite-bellied Sea-Eagle

Click or press on images for larger view

Iluka Bluff and shelf

Blue-faced Honeyeater

We walked through the rainforest at the Iluka reserve that is World heritage listed. Lots of birdlife there too and a really nice walk. We were lucky to spot the Rufous Fantails building a nest.The walk goes from the Bluff through to the harbour and township of Iluka around 1.5 hours one way.

So we have had an amazing time here, could probably stay longer but yet again the weather will be deteriorating from tomorrow afternoon so we want to get further up the road. Eventually we will have to work again so have to keep moving along. This was our last day on the coast, we will be inland at the Murwilumba Showgrounds for a few nights and then see how the weather shapes up. Please enjoy the pics and videos.

Today we hitched up and headed back to the coast. Anthony found a nice caravan park in a place called Woombah, in the Yamba region and the bigger town of Iluka is just up the road. We got here around lunch time, so after setting up and cuppochinos we headed out to explore. We only got as far as the Iluka Bluff, a fantastic headland with a great lookout. We just got to the top of the steps and were greeted by a Brahminy and Whistling Kite hovering very close over our heads. Just another WOW factor. The sky was so blue and not much wind. There’s a rocky ledge that comes out from the headland so we made our way down there and next thing a Brahminy Kite lands in front of us and starts ripping into this big dead fish laying on the rocks. To top it off there were Whales breaching just of the coast, incredible. The Brahminy took off after having a feast and instantly two Sea Eagles came soaring over the headland together…. I mean who ever gets to see two Sea Eagles soaring over their heads, lucky lucky us🤩🤩 We instantly thought they might come down to feast on the fish as well so we were quickly trying to move away, and get in a better position for photos and at the same time a couple were walking from the other direction also into the fish zone and before we could even think …….one of the eagles dived down around the backs of this couple and snatched up the fish prize and flew off into the sunset. We just stood there a bit stunned as we both missed a fantastic video and photos. The couple were hardly even aware that they were witness to an amazing act of nature and were more engrossed in their selfies in front of the waves. Wow people sure are funny.

Brahminy Kite guarding its prey

The very Majestic Sea-Eagle

Iluka Bluff Snippets

Pelican Flyby

Pelican Flyby

We ran out of time to explore further, tomorrow’s another day and there’s plenty more to see. The weather is looking good for the next few days so we can’t wait. Bye for now,